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Writing about al ustath Al-Gubbenchi is indeed a very difficult task, mainly because of his huge contribution to Iraqi music and the maqaam in general. Several books have been dedicated to his huge musical contribution and his outstanding talent, nevertheless, all the books combined merely come close to documenting Mohammed Al-Gubbenchi's huge influence on Iraqi maqaam and Arabic music in general. 

Considered Iraq's best singer, Mohammed Abdul Razzaq Abdul Fattah Al-Gubbenchi was born in "Soog il Ghezil" neighborhood  of Baghdad in 1901. He studied the maqaam under the supervision of several singers, such as Qaddori Al Isha, Sayyid Weli Hussein, UsTa Mahmoud Al-KhayyaT and his father  Abdul Razzaq. Yet, Mohammed Al-Gubbenchi did not limit his singing to the strict maqaam rules as he creatively enriched the maqaam with novel musical varieties and improvisations, where he ultimately outperformed his teachers and supervisors, as well as maqaam "readers" who appeared after his time, in both musical and singing aspects.   

His contributions to the Maqaam are countless. Using "Naghmat Al-Ibraheemi" in maqaam "Al-Husseini", "Nahawend" in maqaam "Bayat" and the "Qatar" in maqaam "Al-Hakeemi" are just few examples. 

His creations are countless as well; although the most notable is his creation of Maqaam Al-Lami when he was in a recording session in Germany in 1928. Al-Gubbenchi left Baghdad to Germany knowing that his father was severly ill, and the maqaam came about when he dreamt that he had lost a tooth, which he interpreted as the death of his father. In the recording session that day, he improvised an Uboothiyeh using a then unknown "nagham" which eventually evolved to get recognized as a maqaam in 1964 by the Musical Conference in Baghdad.  The lyrics of this uboothiyeh are:

Iraqimusic.com is proud to publish the original recording of this Uboothiyeh (see Uboothiyeh Lami below). 

Many a song were written using Lami is Iraq and the Arab world, such as gulli ya Hiloo, ya nab'at il reeHan and Mohammed Abdul Wahab's Yalli Zira'too Al Purtuqaal. 

Al-Usthath Al-Gubbenchi recorded many albums since 1925, all are now considered as scientific resources in Iraqi and Arabic music. He headed Iraq's delegation to the first Arabic Music conference in Cairo in 1932 where he literally left other Arab singers startled and speechless due to his overwhelming talent and vocal capabilities. He, of course, won the "Best Arabic Singer" award that year. We are proud to reveal that several of our files are original recordings from that conference.

We truly feel that it is impossible to cover this great man's contribution to Iraqi and Arabic music in such a limited space. Therefore we can only recommend the book "Mohammed Al-Gubbenchi" by Thamir Abdul Hasan Al-Amiri for further reading (iraqimusic.com is currently seeking a copy of this book. If you happen to have one and are willing to share it with the world, please contact the webmaster, thanks).

Below is a collection of Al-Ustath Al-Gubbenchi's MP3s. Enjoy!